Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cris Cyborg talks about the what's she's been up to in her layoff, the lack of competition in her division, and how she feels about the things that Ronda Rousey has said about her. She takes is as far as calling her out in the parking lot after Strikeforce August 18th, 2012

SUPERSTARS JESSICA PENNE AND NAHO SUGIYAMA TO BATTLE FOR FIRST-EVER INVICTA FC WORLD TITLE

IN ATOMWEIGHT MAIN EVENT IN KANSAS CITY, OCT 6

TICKETS ON SALE SOON FOR STACKED,

13 BOUT CARD FEATURING:

SHAYNA BASZLER VS. SARAH D’ALELIO

BARB HONCHAK VS. AISLING DALY

TARA LAROSA VS. VANESSA PORTO

LESLIE SMITH VS. CAT ZINGANO

MICHELLE WATERSON VS. LACEY SCHUCKMAN

JULIA BUDD VS. ELAINA MAXWELL

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Aug. 15, 2012) – American phenom Jessica Penne (9-1) of Laguna Hills, Calif. will square off with undefeated Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama (8-0) of Kyoto, Japan in the first-ever Invicta Fighting Championships title fight and atomweight (105 pounds) main event of the promotion’s third all-women’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan. on Sat., Oct. 6.
The ticket on-sale date for the much-anticipated Invicta FC 3: Penne vs. Sugiyama event, featuring 13 professional bouts, will be announced soon.
After bringing fans to their feet in a hard-fought main event battle against Olympic Wrestling Silver Medalist Sara McMann, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt Shayna “The Queen of Spades” Baszler of Sioux Falls, S.D. will return to action in the bantamweight (135 pounds) co-main event and take on Invicta FC 2 winner Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio (6-2) of San Jose, Calif.
Another Invicta FC 2 victor, Barb “Little Warrior” Honchak (6-2) of Bettendorf, Iowa will face off with rising star and furious finisher Aisling “Ais The Bash” Daly (13-3) of Dublin, Ireland in a super flyweight (125 pounds) contest.
Invicta FC will welcome one of the original pioneers of women’s MMA, submission expert Tara LaRosa (21-2) of Woodstown, N.J., who will lock horns at super flyweight with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Vanessa Porto (14-5) of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Undefeated Cat “Alpha” Zingano (6-0) of Broomfield, Colo. will make her long-awaited Invicta FC debut against Leslie “The Peacemaker” Smith (3-2-1) of Pleasant Hill, Calif. in a bantamweight matchup and Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson (9-3) of Albuquerque, N.M. will also make her first start under the Invicta FC banner against Lacey “The Ladie” Schuckman (7-5) of Lakewood, Colo. in an atomweight scrap.
In the leadoff main card bout, Julia “The Jewel” Budd (3-2) of Port Moody, Canada will meet Elaina “Beef” Maxwell (7-4) of San Jose, Calif.Jessica Penne vs. Naho Sugiyama
The 29-year-old Penne will move to headlining status after a spectacular co-main event showing on Invicta FC’s inaugural card on April 28 when she stopped Lisa Ellis-Ward with an onslaught of punches in the third round (2:48) of their matchup shortly after breaking Ellis-Ward’s nose with a knee strike. A lifelong athlete, Penne was a competitive swimmer before stumbling upon a pair of boxing gloves and deciding to try her hand at MMA.
Sugiyama will put her perfect record on the line in The United States for the first time since she began tearing through the ranks of professional competitors in Japan three years ago. On Dec. 17, 2011, the 34-year-old was crowned a champion in Japanese all-women’s promotion JEWELS after defeating two opponents – Kikuyo Ishikawa and Misaki Takimoto – in one night of action.Shayna Baszler vs. Sarah D’Alelio
The charismatic, 32-year-old Baszler helped create an electric atmosphere at Memorial Hall on July 28 by engaging McMann in an all-out war for three rounds before losing a heartbreaking decision. A fearsome grappler, Baszler has earned the respect of the fight world by earning 13 of her 14 victories with submissions, including her patented hold that she dubbed the “shwing.”
D’Alelio, 31, pulled off a stunning upset at the Invicta FC event on July 28, tapping out Porto, a far more advanced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu player with a beautifully executed reverse triangle armbar in the first round (3:16) of their meeting. To date, D’Alelio has notched five of her six wins by way of submission.Barb Honchak vs. Aisling Daly
Honchak turned in a dominant performance at Invicta FC 2, scoring a second round (1:22) TKO on Bethany Marshall with a barrage of punches to notch her sixth career win. A protégé of UFC veteran Steve Berger who recently relocated to Quad Cities, Iowa to train at Miletich Fighting Systems, the 32-year-old Honchak will look to secure her sixth consecutive victory.
The 24-year-old Daly is ranked amongst the top five competitors in the super flyweight division. She holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has earned 6 of her 13 career victories by way of submission and 5 by way of KO.Tara LaRosa vs. Vanessa Porto
LaRosa has been nearly unstoppable throughout her decade long professional MMA career, defeating a host of fellow superstars, including Baszler, Kelly Kobold and Alexis Davis. Between 2004 and 2009, the 34-year-old went unbeaten in 15 consecutive starts. LaRosa will seek her fourth straight win in her Invicta FC debut
Following her upset defeat at the hands of D’Alelio, which snapped a four-fight win streak, the 28-year-old Porto will look to regain her stride in the women’s super flyweight division. Trained by her husband, Pedro Iglesias, whom Porto met after walking into Iglesias’ gym for the first time in 2004, Porto has shown off her mastery of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by earning 10 of her 14 career wins via submission.Leslie Smith vs. Cat Zingano
Smith will return to the Invicta FC cage after a fractured wrist kept her on the sidelines from competing on the promotion’s second card on July 28. At the inaugural Invicta FC event on April 28, the 29-year-old Smith earned “Fight of the Night” honors for her brutal, toe-to-toe war with Kaitlin Young that was declared a draw after a three-round see-saw battle.
Zingano, a brilliant finisher who has earned four of her six career wins by way of either KO or submission, will enter the cage for the first time this year and look to extend her perfect record that she has been building since 2008. Trained by her husband, Professor Mauricio Zingano, the 30-year-old is a former collegiate wrestler who went on to win the 2007 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships beforeMichelle Waterson vs. Lacey Schuckman
Waterson is a 26-year-old student of famed MMA trainer Greg Jackson. A martial arts student since the age of 10, she holds a black belt in American Freestyle Karate and was a contestant on the Muay Thai-themed Fight Girls reality series on the Oxygen television network. On Jan. 21, Waterson ended a near two-year hiatus from competition, submitting Diana Rael with a rear-naked choke in the first round (2:12) of their matchup in Albuquerque.
Also a former Muay Thai fighter, the 24-year-old Schuckman showed the world that she is always game by accepting an Invicta FC 2 fight with undefeated JEWELS champion Ayaka Hamasaki on less than two weeks’ notice. Despite the short window of time that she had to prepare for the task, Schuckman, who has earned four of her seven career wins by way of submission, nearly pushed Hamasaki the distance of their bout before succumbing to a Hamasaki armbar with just 15 seconds remaining in the third and final round of their bout.Julia Budd vs. Elaina Maxwell
The chiseled Budd, a 29-year-old lifelong athlete and budding fitness trainer, began her prize fighting career in the sport of Muay Thai where she chalked up several a number of notable wins, including one over superstar Gina Carano, before transitioning to MMA. She is a student of former UFC competitor and world-ranked Shooto fighter, Lance Gibson. Budd scored a first-round (3:49) TKO on Elina Nilsson with a combination of punches and elbow strikes at the Invicta FC 2 event on July 28.
Like Budd, the 33-year-old Maxwell boasts a stellar kickboxing resume. A three-time champion in San Shou rules kickboxing, she won the first American gold medal at the world Wushu (San Shou) Games in Macau, China in 2003. Maxwell reeled off her third straight MMA win on March 30, earning a unanimous decision over Ashley Sanchez in Kearney, Neb.
The six-bout preliminary card will be topped by a matchup between Carla Esparza (7-2) of Redondo Beach, Calif. and Lynn Alvarez (5-2) of Las Vegas, Nev.
Two undefeated prospects, Ashley Cummins (3-0) of St. Louis, MO. and Joanne Calderwood (3-0) of Glasgow, Scottland will collide at super flyweight.Amy Davis (3-3) of Idaho Falls, Idaho will face Stephanie Frausto (3-4) of Middletown, Ohio in an atomweight affair.
Fresh off her professional debut win at Invicta FC 2, highly-touted Jessamyn Duke (1-0) of Richmond, Ky. will face unbeaten Marciea Allen (1-0) of Watertown, S.D. in a bantamweight battle.Tecia Torres (0-0) of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and Kaiyana Rain (0-0) of Los Angeles, Calif. will make their respective professional debuts against each other at flyweight.
Unbeaten Katalina Malungahu (2-0) of Las Vegas, Nev. will tangle with Taylor Stratford (0-0) of Woodland, Calif. in a featherweight (145 pounds) fight.About Invicta Fighting Championships:Invicta Fighting Championships is a world championship Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight series dedicated to providing female athletes with a major platform to hone their skills on a consistent basis. Founded in 2012 by longtime MMA executive Shannon Knapp and sports aficionado Janet Martin, Invicta is committed to pioneering the future growth of women’s MMA by promoting the best possible matchups between female competitors and identifying and developing future superstars of the sport.Contact:Mike Afromowitz (917) 566-8754, mikea@yourwitzend.com

Go inside the intense training routines of Ronda Rousey and Sarah Kaufman as the two MMA fighters prepare for their epic championship battle. Don’t miss the second episode of “All Access: Ronda Rousey” on Wednesday, August 15, 9:30pm ET/PT only on SHOWTIME.
“All Access: Ronda Rousey” – Part 2 Preview

**To stay up-to-date on all things related to women’s MMA, follow us on Facebook (click here).

Sometimes, after going through great adversity, one comes back even stronger
than ever.
That's what former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate is hoping to do.
Tate had her title forcefully ripped out of her clutches by current division
kingpin Ronda Rousey earlier this year in Columbus, Ohio when she
was caught in an armbar from the Judo Olympian and waited too long to tap,
suffering major soft tissue damage.
She's made some big changes, going back to her original gym in Washington
state, changing her nickname from "Takedown" to "Cupcake" and more importantly,
she's vowed to never again be emotionally compromised heading into a fight like
she did against Rousey the last time.
Tate will be taking on Julie Kedzie this Saturday night (August 18, 2012) on the
preliminary card of Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman and in part one of her interview posted yesterday, she discussed
training at elevation and having less attention focused on her. Today, she talks
about Kedzie, her biggest fears and why visualization is so important to her in
the final chapter of our exclusive interview.
Check it out:

Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): In my preparation for this interview, I
listened to and read a wide range of prior interviews and I think at one point
in every single one, someone asked about your arm and the armbar. How tired are
you of talking about your arm?Miesha Tate: It gets tedious, I'm not gonna lie. A lot of people,
that's one of the main two questions I get asked: "How's your arm and when's
your next fight? How's your arm? When's your next fight? How's your arm? When's
your next fight?" It's like, that's what Google's for, you know?
Seriously though, it's expected and I know that a lot of people want to know.
It's nice to know that people care enough to ask so I guess I can't complain.
One of my biggest pet peeves is being asked the same question over and over
again. It's not anyone's fault, but it does kind of annoy me to be honest.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): Let's talk
about your upcoming fight. You're facing Julie Kedzie, who's been around a
little longer than than you and she's faced a laundry list of the best female
fighters out there. You've said that you think you're better than her in just
about everything. What does that make you want to do when you get in the cage?
Do you want to utilize something new you've been working on or would you rather
respond to the flow of the fight?Miesha Tate: I just want to come back with a vengeance. My ideal is
just to make a statement and get people talking, "Not only is she back, but
she's back powerfully. She's stronger than ever. This wasn't a setback for her,
this was a comeback." That's what I really want. I don't really have a strong
gameplan where in order to win the fight, I have to do "this" or "that." I kind
of think I can win the fight in every area.
We studied and I know where my strengths and weaknesses match up with her and
like I said, I feel pretty confident and pretty strong in every area. I would
like to end the fight with strikes. However that may be, I'd like that. that's
what I'm going for in regards to making an impression. But if the submission or
anything else is there, I won't hesitate to take that.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): I don't think
she's ever been stopped by strikes, even though she's stepped in there against
some pretty devastating strikers like Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young. That would be a pretty big feather in your
cap if you could pull it off.Miesha Tate: I kind of see the fight, I envision myself winning via
TKO. That's what I would like to do the most. The thing about Julie is, she's a
really hard girl to finish. She's been doing this long enough and she's been
training really long and fighting longer than I have. Win, lose, or draw, she
makes it to the end of the third round. She's got a lot of decision wins and
some decision losses. She's got a reputation for that. She's like the Energizer
bunny or a juggernaut. She knows how to hang in there. Being able to finish
Julie I think would make a statement in itself.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): Also with her
having several decision wins, that makes her not quite as dangerous in terms of
a threat of a finish against you. Do you think that opens the door for you to
take a few more risks?Miesha Tate: I do. When I think about Julie Kedzie, I don't feel
threatened that she'll be able to finish me. Anything can happen, but I don't
see it happening. I don't see Julie being able to come out there and knock me
out. I don't see her outgrappling me and I don't see her having better wrestling
than I do. I don't think she's even going to want to take me down.
I think she's gonna try to point farm me like a lot of the Jackson's guys
having been doing lately. Especially with our style match-up, it's probably what
she's gonna do, stick and move, stick and move and look for the decision win. I
have to be prepared for anything, but I'm prepared to push the pace. I don't
want to win a decision. I'm looking for a finish.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): Do you have
any concerns that that because you're on the undercard, that even if you have an
exciting finish, it would not get as much exposure to get that title shot
again?Miesha Tate: Well, I think fortunately with the fanpower that I have
to this point, and the honest assessment is I won't get as much exposure as I
would on Showtime but the people that matter will be watching. I know that Dana
White will be watching and I know that Sean Shelby, the matchmaker, will be
watching and I know that my fans will be watching.
I have a lot of fans and I have a lot of people that really support me and no
matter what happens, the footage will be on YouTube, it's gonna get out there
and it's gonna be talked about because my goal is to go out there and steal the
show. I want to have a better fight than Ronda and Sarah do. That's my goal. I'm
gonna do the best that I can with the following and the viewership that I
have.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): There's been
some rumblings that Cyborg Santos could get the next title shot since she's
potentially allowed to come back in December. Would that bum you out if they
chose her over you if you go out there and do a good job.Miesha Tate: Yeah, I think so. It would probably bother me because I
think that in our first fight, call me crazy, but if you follow the sport of
mixed martial arts, the techniques that were happening when me and Ronda were
fighting, it was very back-and-forth. It was very competitive and I think I'm
the only person to have ever escaped an armbar attempt of hers. I obviously have
the skills to hang with her on the ground and I have the advantage on the feet
so it wasn't a one-sided match by any means in my opinion.
I got caught in an armbar and I lost, but up until that point, it was really
competitive and had I not got armbarred at the end of that round, it may have
been a debate about who won the round and we'd have gone on to the next round.
It wasn't like she just went out there and creamed me. For the future, I think a
rematch would be warrented.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): I've got a few
last questions about getting to know you better. Being a fighter brings a
reputation of being very tough, but is there anything that frightens you?Miesha Tate: I'm definitely scared of needles, although I've made huge
progress on my fear of them. I used to be very, very, very, very afraid of
needles. I couldn't be near them, couldn't stand them, they used to freak me
out, but getting my bloodwork done all the time has helped me start to get over
that. Perhaps it was a "face my fears" kind of thing.
Another thing I'd be freaked out about a bit is bees. I can't stand bees. If
bees come around me, I'm just out of there. I'm like, "Hell no, either the bee
or me is going down." I don't like bees at all.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): So what helped
you get over the fear of needles? Was it a meditation technique or someone
supporting you?Miesha Tate: I really had to talk to myself and tell myself how stupid
it was. It's funny. The mind is a very powerful thing and I think that's what's
determined a lot of my success, a strong mentality. I think I'm pretty
strong-headed and I try to always keep a positive outlook and whatnot so I
basically self-helped myself over my fear of needles. It's not that bad. Every
time I get a shot or get bloodwork done, it never hurts as bad as I'm picturing
it in my mind. I had to realize, what is it that was so scary? I convinced
myself that it's not that bad and I've done it before.Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): Speaking of
that mentality, I know you're a very big fan of visualization. When you're
vizualizing success against Julie Kedzie, what do you see?Miesha Tate: Oh yeah, I'm a huge advocate of visualization. I think
it's very important. Every time I fight, I feel like I've already been in that
situation hundreds to even thousands of times in my mind. It helps to be even
more familiar when you're walking out to the cage and you get in the cage and
you see them across from the cage, it's not like it's the first time you've been
there or experienced it.
I visualize it so vividly in my mind that it helps me cope with any pre-fight
anxiety. It helps me get over that. I envision just me being the aggressor and
maybe getting punched but just walking through it, stepping forward, pushing the
pace and forcing her to feel uncomfortable, hitting her with really hard shots,
getting her to cover up, taking her down and a ground and pound finish or a rear
naked choke. I see getting my hand raised and the feeling of success and joy and
how good that feeling is in itself, working for that. That's what I picture in
my mind over and over again.Miesha would like to thank her home gym Yakima Mixed Martial Arts, Rich
Guerin and Julie Guerin. She'd like to thank Bryan Caraway, her family, her friends, her fans. She'd also
like to thank Toyo Tires, VSGInc.org and Training Mask. You can follow Miesha on
Twitter @MieshaTate.
So what do you think, Maniacs?
Will Tate make the statement she desires this Saturday night against Julie
Kedzie? Is there any way she can earn a title shot with an impressive
performance?
Sound off!

MMAWeekly Radio is back for Tuesday’s show with
former Strikeforce women’s champion Miesha Tate as well as Muay Thai world champ
Ryan ‘The Lion’ Madigan.
Tate stops by to discuss her upcoming fight with Julie Kedzie as well as her
pick in the title fight between Ronda Rousey and Sarah Kaufman. Tate will also
give us her thoughts on a potential rematch with Rousey down the line.
Ryan Madigan is a multi-time world Muay Thai champion and he’ll discuss with
us today his upcoming bout, and also why his passion fell more for the striking
arts than it did for MMA.
The debate heats up on today’s show as well with all new topics:
- Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller arrested after vandalizing a church in California.
Reaction to the arrest?- Dana White says Ronda Rousey is the one woman he
could see fighting in the UFC. Do you believe the women’s division will
eventually land in the UFC or just Rousey?- With all the talk about GSP vs.
Silva and Rousey vs. Cyborg, who has been more disrespected heading into their
fights – Carlos Condit or Sarah Kaufman?- Do you believe we will ever see a
GSP vs. Anderson Silva super fight?
This is MMAWeekly Radio for Tuesday, Aug 14